When you die, there is a great likelihood that you will not only be greeted by deceased loved ones, but that there will be a roomful of them.

This comes to us from actual hospice researchers -- who increasingly are describing the experiences of those who approach the glorious threshold of death (as are hospital medical personnel).

In our dark times, to declare the threshold of death as glorious seems strange, and yet it is also totally accurate: there is a glorious Light at the end of the tunnel for those who are not condemned. And even before that, there is a glorious reunion.

One of those who has come out to reveal the mechanics of "passing over" is David Kessler, a health-care worker whose book is even entitled Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms (and was recently highlighted by the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper).

"I've been intrigued by the use of the words 'crowd' and 'crowded,' writes Kessler. "When I started compiling examples to include in this book, I was surprised by how similar they were. In fact, it was hard to pick which ones to use because they were all so much alike. Perhaps we don't have a full grasp of how many people we've met, and we certainly can't recall all of the individuals who crossed our paths when we were children. In the tapestry of life and death, we may not always think about those who have come before us; we just know where we as individuals are positioned in the family tree. In dying, however, perhaps we're able to make connections to the past that we'd missed earlier in life."

Intriguing indeed. Will we encounter everyone in our family lines back to Adam? Plus all our friends?

"I often say that when someone is dying, it may be a 'standing room only' experience," the researcher says. "As I've stated previously, I firmly believe that just as loving hands greet us when we're born, loving arms will embrace us when we die."

He then cites several examples.

In some cases, those dying list every person they "see" to hospice workers. They carry on conversations with an invisible world that is every bit as real to them as the physical one. Parents. Spouses. Sisters. Brothers. Uncles. Aunts. Even friends and in-laws.

Said one: "I saw something last night that doesn't make sense. In the middle of the night, I woke up and my room was filled with people. I couldn't understand what was going on. I knew that doctors weren't making rounds with their students at that hour. I looked at the faces I saw -- they went on and on. While I only knew some of them, they all seemed familiar. Then I had this realization that all of these individuals were dead. I even noticed a colleague from work who'd died five years ago from cancer."

When asked by her daughter who she was talking to, another one said, "Why, people I've know my whole life. They've been gone a long time, but they're here to see me. So many of them -- what a crowd!"

The dying will sometimes use expressions like, "Look at all the old-timers going by" (in our own recollection of such cases).

This is how merciful Jesus is -- He never allows us to be alone, not even at the moment of death. Although we may have problems with some of those who endorse Kessler's book (as often occurs, New Agers gravitate toward many sorts of spiritual phenomena), it is fascinating. Many may try to chalk it up to hallucination, but cases where drugs were used that could cause such effects or symptoms indicating hallucination were not cited in the book.

Moreover, skeptics will have trouble explaining cases like that of one woman who was dying of pancreatic cancer while her husband Joseph was at a separate facility for severe Alzheimer's. Suddenly, recounts Kessler, she looked up and said, "Joseph died. Why didn't anyone tell me this?" She was assured by her daughter that Joseph was still in the nursing home. "Look, there he is!" insisted the dying woman. Gazing past everyone, she said, "Joseph, you came back for me!"

In the meantime, the daughter had decided to bring her father over to see the mom, and a cousin went to the nursing station to call the nursing home -- only to find out that Joseph indeed had died fifteen minutes before, of a heart attack.

FOR DISCERNMENT ONLY

My belief is one step further. With God there is no time, no beginning, no ending. So I believe that when you die you see and are with everyone that you know, whether they be dead or alive. It’s why heaven is what they say heaven is supposed to be.

After my cardiac arrest, people asked me if I saw “the light” or any family or friends who had died. I didn’t see either and was kind of bummed. Maybe it just meant that it wasn’t my time. It would be nice to know that there are people waiting for me when my number comes up.

I never pooh-pooh anyone's religious faith, excepting those who are using it as a fig leaf to further some other agenda.

I spent a lot of time with an elder brother before he passed away and I could hear him talking to deceased relatives, both recent and long ago. At first, I attributed this to the drugs he was on for pain. However, as death drew nearer, he asked that the drugs be stopped so he could speak with his family coherently. Even then, these experiences continued. I did a lot of reading on the subject, including a book which actually was able to calculate the weight of a soul at about 1/8th of an ounce by measuring the loss of body weight at the time of death and adjusting for air in the lungs, etc.

I came away convinced that all people have souls and possibly even do some animals.

9
posted on 08/09/2010 9:31:27 AM PDT
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

The physician, waiting up with Voltaire at his death, said that he cried out with utter desperation, “I am abandoned by God and man. I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life. Then I shall go to hell and you will go with me, oh, Christ, oh, Jesus Christ!”

15
posted on 08/09/2010 9:35:49 AM PDT
by Westbrook
(Having children does not divide your love, it multiplies it.)

The morning my mother died, she told a health care worker that her mother and father were “looking for her”. Momma died in 1999 and her faculties were about 80%, so I don’t think this was dementia or senility. Her father died in 1923 and her mother died in 1946.

That’s merely the beginning of a reality, which is so much more profound than ours. For the very first time you will love with the power of God’s Love. The other five senses explode. With the telephoto lenses of the Golden Eagle, scent of a bloodhound, the hearing of an elk, touch of a butterfly, and the taste appreciation senses of the great gormand. We are utterly unprepared for the transition.

This fascinates me. I was listening to the late nite Coast to Coast radio show one night and there was a long time hospice worker who had worked with thousands of people in their last days. He said that almost all the Cristians her worked with saw an Angel sometime during thier last days. When I told my wife about this she was shocked. She told me something she had never told anyone. When she was with her mother, days before her mother’s death, he mother pointed at the ceiling and asked my wife if she saw the angel. She then talked to the angel. My wife always thought it was the pain medication so she never repeated it. Now she’s not so sure.

For those of you interested in this topic, you might want to read of Tiffany Snow’s near-death experience (lightning strike) and what she learned from it. Fascinating, believable (at least to me), reassuring and enlightening.

When my grandmother passed away. was on no medication what so ever. she told my dad “ i see you george” my dad said who is named george as well he said mom im right here. she goes no your dad george he is dancing my grandmother reached up from laying down but reached to the sky and said george im coming. she fell back into bed and passed away. My dad said it was the most amazing feeling he ever had and my grandmother died with a huge smile on her face.

My Grandmother left us slowly. She spoke with her Mother daily for the last few months. They broke beans together for supper and Grandma called her “Mother Dear”. When she was “on our side of life” she only spoke to Grandpa and my oldest son who was 2 at the time. Mostly she was more “there” than here.

24
posted on 08/09/2010 9:51:34 AM PDT
by DJ MacWoW
(If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)

Same with mine. I found myself floating in a deep and silent place. I was swathed in a sort of comforting darkness. I knew immediately it wasn't sleep, but I was unafraid. I could sense I was in some sort of waypoint. The “lights” came on when I heard someone repeatedly shouting my name and asking “CAN YOU HEAR ME?” My eyes flew open as I responded “Ya!...What’d I miss?” One of three ICU nurses standing around my hospital bed softly touched my shoulder and said “Your heart stopped.”

25
posted on 08/09/2010 9:52:00 AM PDT
by PowderMonkey
(Will work for ammo)

My uncle died in May and right before his final breath he asked my aunt who “those two people are behind you” and when she turned around and saw noone, she said there wasn’t anyone there. He was insistent that there were two people dressed in white standing behind her. He finally turned to her and said he was tired and it was time for him to go, was she going to be alright, and that he’d always loved her and their sons. She said she knew and always felt the same. At that point he closed his eyes and it was over. I still miss him each and every day - he was the same age as me and more brother then uncle. I truly believe it was my grandparents waiting for him.....he was the youngest of 8 and they are going to take care of him....

27
posted on 08/09/2010 10:06:59 AM PDT
by BamaDi
(I'm praying for a bloodbath in '10)

I was told that I was flat lined and required a lot of blood. I saw a tunnel with light on the end and a face. I asked; “Is that you God?” He answered; “My mother in law had the same operation and lived to be 85.” It was my doctor speaking to me as I came to. I experienced what appeared to be a tunnel but it was due to the anesthesia wearing off.

I have read enough accounts of near death experiences to know full well that we are reunited with loved ones who have gone to Heaven before us, and that the reunion will be beyond joyous. Heaven, and its wonderfulness is beyond all human explanation, and those who have already been received into the Lords arms are looking forward to the day they can welcome us Home. Yes, they are the ones who are Home.

I heard it said once that, - as a Christian, the day I die will be the best day Ive ever lived. But it wont be the best I will ever live.

Harps, white robes, and never-ending boredom represent many believers perception of Heaven, because that is what movies, cartoons, and paintings, and sadly even some messages from the pulpit have showed us what it is like. On the other hand, many without Christ think Hell is going to be one big party. Both perceptions are dead wrong, and not even close to reality.

The Heaven John wrote about in the Bible is so full of wonders and mysteries that in our wildest dreams we could not imagine how glorious it is. Certainly Heaven contains many surprises which we will never be able to comprehend in this life.

The only way I can relate to Heavens wonderfulness in my puny little mortal way of thinking, is to ask people to think back to the one single best day of their whole life. Maybe it was your wedding, the birth of your first child, your first visit to Disneyland, the anniversary cruise with your spouse, Whatever. Now imagine each day in Heaven being that multiplied 100-fold, and the number of those days will be endless. Is it no wonder that John also wrote about the multitudes he saw worshiping and praising the one who said he was going away to prepare a place for us, and then fulfilled that promise beyond our wildest imagination.

That is what I firmly believe Heaven will be like.

Our passed loved ones who are experiencing those wonders are not looking back with sorrow, but instead they are anxious for the day when the rest the family will join them.

When my wife was around 10 years old and her family lived in Chicago, her very young sister (around 4) woke up one morning and, came into the kitchen where the family was gathered for breakfast. She asked, “Where’s Grandpa?” They told her that he lives in California and he’s not here. She said that when she was sleeping he woke her up and told her goodbye.” She was pretty emphatic that she saw him so, to calm her down they made a long distance call to California. It turned out he had died in the night.

We are talking about stuff here about which we know pretty much nothing, so I believe we can be very easily fooled. With that said, I’ll throw out something strictly to spice up the debate:

If God is who the bible says he is, and one believes it, do you think God would “make a mistake” and accidentally let people get a glimpse of the afterlife when they are gonna get snapped back into our reality? If not, then is it just possible that Satan could fake the experience of your deceased friends meeting you there.

I’m not saying I believe that. What I am saying is that this could be interpreted to mean literally anything someone wanted it to mean. Heck, it could even be considered your strongest memories coming to the surface as the brain starts its death process.

IOW, it could mean absolutely anything and what you believe it is has to do solely with your view of this life and the afterlife.

She came in as someone like that would. She figured grandpa was visiting and just was excited to see him. She was actually quite surprise that he wasn’t there and pretty adamant. That’s one reason they called. I wasn’t there, but I suspect another reason was that he may not have been in good health and, frankly, her attitude was creeping them out - and it turned out there may have been a reason for that.

On a side note, an acquaintance of mine back in the 1980’s had her dead grandmother, right after she died, appear at the foot of her bed and tell her everything was going to be all right.

I didn’t get any of the floating thing either. I just thought I dozed off. I woke up to find a guy pounding on my chest and heard a nurse behind me say “she’s flatlined.” What I did remember were some very short dreams where my body parts were basically twitching. One was a bicycle ride in a local park. I could feel my legs moving. I was told later that the staff had to use those paddles on me seven times. I suppose the twitching came from those paddles.

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